Bad idea gets worse.

Byline: The Register-Guard

An overwhelming majority of the country's commercial airline pilots want to be able to carry loaded guns into the cockpit. Now the first 44 pilots to go through a week-long course on using such weapons had graduated from a federal law enforcement training center.

But neither pilot opinion nor the gun-training courses will make the skies safer.

The airlines are currently replacing flimsy cockpit doors with stronger, bullet-proof and - it's to be hoped - terrorist-proof doors. Current rules require the cockpit doors to be locked during flight. But the pilots, over the objection of Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta, continued pressing to be trained as deputy air marshals and issued automatic weapons. The idea, according to the pilots, is that pilots may have to serve as the last bastion of resistance to an on-board terrorist intent on taking over or wrecking the airplane.

A pilot's most important job is to take off, fly and land the airplane safely. That's especially true in the event of a Sept. 11-type takeover attempt by terrorists. With more secure cockpit doors, whatever else may be going on in the airliner's cabin, the pilot's job is to steer the plane to a safe landing. Being armed might lead the pilot into a shoot-out mentality that would jeopardize the plane and everyone on board.

It's easy to understand why pilots want the firepower to resist attempts to hijack an airplane full of passengers. But having impenetrable cockpit doors, and allowing cockpit crews to have stun guns available, would provide ample in-flight security without the potential of pilots and madmen engaging in fast-draw contests, thus endangering the plane and its passengers.

Besides, anonymous - and armed - federal marshals are now routine passengers on many U.S. commercial flights. They are far better trained than even the 44 newly armed pilots to deal with in-flight terrorist threats. And the passengers themselves form an effective first line of defense, as the takedown of would-be shoe bomber Richard Reid showed.

Now that the first class of weapons-trained pilots has graduated, it's probably too late to halt further training. In fact, an estimated one in three U.S. pilots - about 30,000 in all - could be carrying weapons within five years. That's a scary thought. But it's fervently to be hoped that all commercial airline pilots will continue to concentrate on flying the airplane behind secure cockpit doors rather than disarming or trying to kill terrorists.